Log exports and water quality are lightning rods

Timberland fragmentation and 'global markets' also conspire against sustainability
Gordon Hamilton, Vancouver Sun
Published: Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Today, that forest has been cut into pieces, some going into parks and some changing hands through corporate re-structuring. The private lands have been amalgamated under two pure-play companies, TimberWest Forest and Island Timberlands.

Both companies have found they can gain the maximum return by exporting logs. And they have accelerated the rate of cut by adopting a harvesting model that bases harvest rotations on an economic schedule, rather than on biological maturity.

As timber allocations have changed, so too has investment by the large forest companies' operating plants. The B.C. forest industry as a whole had a negative return on capital employed of 1.8 per cent in 2006. The coast was the worst-performing sector. No longer making a return on their capital employed, companies say they cannot attract investor interest.

To read more, go to: http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/business/story.html?id=11071298-fa83-4360-b4b8-368817597dc1&k=29830&p=3